SmackDown Review: Where Do You See Alexander Rusev In Six Months?

This week's SmackDown episode was held from Nashville, TN. Triple H further explained his actions toward the Shield, and stated that his attempt of reconciling was denied by the trio. As a result, a big match is set for Extreme Rules, reuniting Evolution for the first time in nearly ten years. The show also gave us Big E defeating Alberto Del Rio (finally) to give legitimacy to the Intercontinental Championship, Paige preparing for her Divas title match against Tamina Snuka by getting past Aksana, El Torito defeating Hornswoggle, Santino defeating Fandango to continue their feud, and Batista getting past Sheamus in a hard-fought victory.

On the show we also saw Alexander Rusev defeating R-Truth, and dominating Xavier Woods after the match. Although Rusev looks impressive, and he will probably participate in a squash match at Extreme Rules, will he have a long shelf live on the main roster?

Rusev is already being compared to the likes of Vladimir Koslov and Sylvester Terkay. Impressive looking grapplers, intimidating in the ring, but that's about it. Their characters never got an opportunity to materialize the way WWE originally hoped. At one point, WWE even showed how much they were investing in Koslov by a victory against the Undertaker. Now, both of them are gone, and Rusev is the next one of its kind to be elevated.

Lana is a good addition to make Rusev have an element that the other two did not. The agility that he has is impressive, and could allow memorable matches in the future. This all hinges on whether the fans quickly dispose him like they did Tensai.

I believe the best short-term idea to get Rusev over is to put him over RVD. He can go through the likes of R-Truth, Xavier Woods, Zack Ryder, and Justin Gabriel for the next couple of months, participate in the Money in the Bank match, and then commence a feud with RVD shortly after. As a former world champion, RVD is a big enough name to catapult a new superstar to the next level. Rusev would be a good fit for RVD to defeat him at SummerSlam. Especially since he is expected to leave afterwards. Rusev can defeat him, and them attack him post-match enough to write him off until he comes back.